Another PNP Vote Casualty
The Peopls’s National Party (PNP) have lost their candidate D.K Duncan’s seat of East Hanover to the Jamaica Labour Party’s (JLP) Barrington Gray by nine votes, announced Director of Elections Danville Walker.

The preliminary vote count had showed that Mr. Duncan won the seat by 57 votes.

At the same time the PNP’s Derrick Kellier has regained the South St. James seat.

On Monday night the JLP’s Noel Donaldson was declared the winning candidate. However, following the recount, which was completed this morning, the Director of Elections said Mr. Kellier duly won the election by more than 200 votes.

Mr. Kellier had insisted that he was victorious at the polls after it was announced that Mr. Donaldson defeated him.

In the meantime Mr. Walker says the final count has not resulted in a change in the preliminary results for the contentious Western Hanover seat. This means that the PNP’s Ian Hayles will be appointed as the new Member of Parliament.

The Director of Elections also said that a recount is now underway for the Central Manchester seat.

On Monday night, the PNP’s Peter Bunting was declared the winner over the JLP’s Sally Porteous by more than 207 votes.

And yesterday the JLP’s Tarn Peralto was declared the winner of the South East St. Mary seat over the PNP’s Harry Douglas. Mr. Peralto won the seat by 34 votes.

The unofficial count on election day had Mr. Peralto trailing Mr. Douglas by 46 votes.

The official party seat standings remains at 33 for the JLP and 27 for the PNP.

The remaining results of the final count are to made known later today.

GG Awaits Official Declaration of MPs
Governor General Professor Kenneth Hall is awaiting the official declaration of the Members of Parliament to appoint the new prime minister.

Professor Hall is expected to receive the official declaration in the form of a gazette. Attorney Bert Samuels said the magisterial recounts which will likely be sought by the PNP should not affect the appointment of the Prime Minister.

The new Prime Minister is then expected to advise the Governor General of the members of the new Cabinet. In the meantime Mr. Samuels is of the view that the closeness of the election results should benefit the Jamaican people when issues come up for debate in Parliament.

MPs Must Disclose Government Contracts
Contractor General Greg Christie is highlighting the need for Parliamentary candidates to disclose government contracts held by them.

Mr. Christie said much attention has been paid to the section of the constitution regarding the eligibility of candidates who have sworn allegiance to a foreign power.

But he says focus should also be placed on Section 40 subsection 2 (c) of the Constitution.

This section states that persons seeking to be elected to the House of Representatives or appointed to the Senate must disclose whether they are party to a Government contract at least a month before the election.

Mr. Christie also stated that such persons can be barred from taking their seats in parliament if they failed to make such a disclosure.